video2psp

video2psp is a Python CLI tool that converts videos to a PSP-compatible MP4 format, allowing you to select which audio and subtitle track to include (burned in) or optionally use an external subtitle file.

Installation

1. Make sure you have FFmpeg (including ffprobe) installed and accessible in your system’s PATH.
2. Clone or download this repository and run:

   pip install .
   

   This will install video2psp as a console command.

Or install using PyPI

pip install video2psp

Usage

GUI

Prefer a graphical interface? Run:

video2psp --gui

(-g also works), or launch video2psp-gui to open it without a terminal window. The GUI lets you pick the input/output files, choose tracks, and tweak volume/preset/CRF/frame rate without touching the terminal.

CLI

With the tool installed, simply run:

video2psp <input_video> [output_video] [options]

• If output_video is omitted, the output is saved next to the input with an .mp4 extension.
• If you do not specify --video-track, --audio-track or --subtitle-track, the script will prompt you to pick which tracks to use.
• To skip prompts, you can set them explicitly, for example:

  video2psp movie.mkv out.mp4 --video-track 0 --audio-track 0 --subtitle-track 1
  

• To burn an external subtitle file instead of an embedded track:

  video2psp movie.mkv out.mp4 --external-subs subs.srt
  

• To adjust audio volume (e.g. 150%):

  video2psp movie.mkv out.mp4 --volume 1.5
  

• To trade encoding speed for compression efficiency (default: medium):

  video2psp movie.mkv out.mp4 --preset veryfast
  

  Available presets (slowest/best compression to fastest): veryslow, slower, slow, medium, fast, faster, veryfast, superfast, ultrafast.
• To control video quality/file size via CRF (0-51, lower = higher quality and larger file, default: 23):

  video2psp movie.mkv out.mp4 --crf 26
  

  Video is encoded at a constant quality target rather than a fixed bitrate, so simple scenes take up less space; -maxrate/-bufsize still cap the peak bitrate to respect the PSP's decoder buffer limits.
• The output keeps the source frame rate by default (max 29.97 fps, the PSP limit; higher rates are divided evenly, e.g. 59.94 → 29.97, 50 → 25). To pick one yourself:

  video2psp movie.mkv out.mp4 --fps 23.976
  

• Hardware (GPU) decoding is on by default and falls back to the CPU automatically when unavailable. If it causes problems on your machine, turn it off:

  video2psp movie.mkv out.mp4 --no-hwaccel
  

Notes & Limitations

• The PSP typically supports H.264 Baseline Level 3.0 with AAC audio.
• Resolution is scaled to fit within 480x272 (PSP screen size), preserving aspect ratio and padding with black bars as needed.
• Only one video and audio track is included, and one subtitle track can be burned.
• For image-based subtitles (like PGS or VobSub), you need to convert them to a text format (e.g., SRT) before burning.
• If no output file is given and the input is already an .mp4, the output is saved as <name>_psp.mp4 so the original is never overwritten.
• 10-bit sources and anamorphic videos (e.g. DVDs) are converted to 8-bit and square pixels automatically.

Feel free to contribute or customize further. Enjoy converting videos for your PSP!